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Saturday, January 31, 2009

So, at first I couldn't firgure out why my pictures weren't links you could click for a bigger image. After some searching & experimentation, I discovered that when I import them & then move them around in "Compose" mode for whatever reason the portion of html code that makes them linkable dissapears. If I want them clickable, I need to cut & past the code in "Edit Html" mode.

Great! Yeah ... sorta. Because then my pics were clickable but they were seriously GINORMOUS.

So I started trying to figure out what was causing this, because it's irritating to me, even though most people probably don't notice - was it because of the resolution I'm shooting my pics at? Because I select large when I upload (but I thought that just effected how big it appeared within the blog?). It's kind of behind the scenes stuff, but it's the kind of stuff that makes me feel like a noob.

But today we had SUNSHINE & so the perfect opportunity to experiment with my camera settings while getting some pics of Shattered in the sun. And I'm happy to report I was right, and so now I know how to have clickable pics that are a little more reasonably sized. Like this:

Old Setting (click to enlarge A LOT):New Setting (click to enlarge a more reasonable amount):

Even the smaller one is still pretty big, almost too big really. I can see every single bad thing huge as well as all the good stuff. More inspiration to improve my technique I suppose.

Unfortunately, shopping has had the normal results of when I came home I noticed I had chipped a few nails. And my tolerance for chips, which used to be pretty high, has taken a nosedive & now even though I'm still loving this color I think I have to take it off.

Shopping itself did not go as planned, but still turned out pretty good. I got a new watch, which I've been needing, then I went to a couple CVSs, looking for the Barielle Shades polish (I am currently particularly lemming the green, but the other colors are also gorgeous) and I came up empty on that front but I did find a couple of Sally Hansens to make me feel better & a Revlon:

From left to right: SH Flair, SH Glow, Revlon Silver Screen.

So even though I the search for Barielle continues, I'm happy enough with what I got for now. Thanks for reading.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Well, I feel a little more on track. Still behind compared to last year, but keeping a better book schedule. #7 only took me 2 days, although it was fairly short, under 300 pages. Normal Saturday routine is a trip to the library & since I have no other plans to speak of, I'm hoping to get through another book or 2 by Monday.

I also thought I should lay out a few ground rules for myself for when I do book reviews. I will try to keep from posting any spoilers without prior warning, but anything mentioned on the back of the book or the book jacket I will consider fair game. Same goes for stuff that happened in books earlier in a series when reviewing a later book. Ummm ... other than that I don't know yet but if I come up with anything more I'll be sure to let you know =) On to the books:

#6:

3rd Degree

Women's Murder Club Book 3

James Patterson & Andrew Gross

I've been enjoying this series more than I thought I would, but I have to start out by saying - damn you James Patterson! He has a habit of killing off important characters, and while from a plot standpoint I understand that not everything can have a totally neat & happy ending, it's starting to get a little old. Every book has contained the death of a main or semi-main character.

As a reader it's sad when you get to know someone & then they get axed just to progress the story. As a writer, I'm aware it's something I need to work on, because I have a TON of trouble ever killing off any of my own characters.

#7:

Real Murders

Aurora Teagarden Book 1

Charlaine Harris

This is a series that had been on my to read list for quite a while. I like Charlaine Harris but up until now I had only read her Sookie Stackhouse series, which may sound familiar to some because last summer it was adapted for TV by HBO into the series True Blood (which I have to say is pretty well done & has excellent casting [& Anna Paquin even won a Golden Globe for her Sookie] & I can't wait for summer for the 2nd season).

I liked this book but didn't love it - that may just be that it's the first in the series, and I feel like I'm still getting to know the characters, I'm not really invested in what happens to them yet. But I definitely liked it enough to pick up the 2nd book in the series. I got this partly to see if it was something I could recommend to my friend after she finishes the Women's Murder Club series, although Patterson does have another couple series & plenty of stand alone books to keep her busy.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

This is definitely one of my top 10 favorite polishes ever, maybe top 5, and for several years it sat sad & dried up on my dresser. Then I started browsing nail blogs, and stumbled across Scrangie's post for bringing old polishes back to life. I already had some thinner, and my old original Urban Decay polishes were the first thing I grabbed to try this out on. They are probably at least 15 years old, no joke, but they are smooth & lovely after considerable thinning & shaking & stirring & shaking some more. After wearing Peacock Feathers for several days, which was pretty dark, I wanted something bright & happy. May I present my current NOTD – Urban Decay Shattered:

If anyone knows of an available polish that is a dupe for this, LET ME KNOW. Seriously. It's such perfect shimmery turquoise excellence. The pics don't quite capture the depth of color or the bluer flash.

Since there was some visible nail line (which I probably didn't have nails long enough to notice back when I used to wear this) even at 4 coats, I decided to add some Konad, which I hadn't originally planned on. Hides the VNL pretty well, although the tips are still noticably lighter. I thought about messing with it some more but then I remembered my experience of a couple weeks ago & my lesson of less is more so I stopped while I was ahead. Konaded with CG Awaken & plate m62. 'Scuse my edges btw, I was too lazy to clean up.

I wish I'd known enough back then to buy an extra bottle. I wish they'd had it available when I placed an order when they were closing out the polishes. Most of all, I wish they still made it (or any polish at all, stupid Urban Decay, forgetting your roots! Nail polish is where it all started!). Although I have to say the old handle is one of the worst things ever. Their newer bottles have a much better top.

I scheduled this to post at 12:01 because today is my blog's 2 week birthday/anniversary. And I just wanted to say thanks to everyone that's commented here, responded to a comment I left on their blog, is following my blog, has posted a link to my blog on theirs or mentioned my blog in a post, or any other scenario I may have missed. Even to those that are just reading and don't have anything to say or are shy, thanks!

I was pretty paranoid when I started this thing I would basically be talking to myself, and I'm pretty pleased with how things have progressed not even 2 weeks in. I have every honest intention of replying to every comment anyone leaves for me that I can think of a halfway intelligent response for, because it honestly just tickles me that anyone has something to say in response to my posts. Puts a little smile on my face =) Could, in fact, be added to my list of ... simple little pleasures.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The last Romantique & the Last Dollar Tree. I don't think 3 is enough bottles to constitute a haul, but this is what I picked up today: I originally thought I only needed a couple of the Romantique collection. Then I started hearing how well they worked with Konad, and then I saw it for myself, and by that time various displays were semi-sold out & I had to start searching for the rest of them. Magical completes my set.

The last Dollar Tree was a little dissapointing ... but if I were only going to find 2 polishes, one being purple & the other gold is a good way to go. The purple is Sheer Orchid, and the gold is Moonglow. And I walked out satisfied that I had raided every Dollar Tree in the immediate area.

The immediate area.

My friend lives outside of what I consider my normal shopping radius. And she just told me there's a Dollar Tree on the way over there. So I have a detour to make the next time I go out to visit her.

I chipped one of my nails pretty badly while I was grocery shopping today, and I thought it was the perfect excuse for getting started with my "paint my nails more often" resolution, but when I got home ... well, I don't know what happened, but after putting everything away & fixing & eating dinner, now it's suddenly time for bed & I never got around to taking off the old stuff, let alone putting on anything new.

*sigh*

I probably won't have time for them tomorrow either, but maybe Thursday. I don't think I can make it all the way to the weekend. My bottle of Seche is a looming accusation that it won't take as long as I think it will, if I just get in gear & do it.

Monday, January 26, 2009

It says right up top: "Nails, novels & other stuff that makes me happy." So where, you may be wondering, are these supposed novels?

I confess that sometimes my other hobbies get in the way of reading, and sometimes I get irritated with myself for being so easily distracted. Even though I have already read 5 books so far this year, a part of me feels a little bad because last year at this point I had already read 11 books.

Actually keeping a list & tracking how much I read came about basically from people at work teasing me. "How many books did you read this week?" Ha. Ha. Except it actually did get me to wondering. I knew I read 2-3 books a week most of the time, but I had never really tried to keep track before over a longer period of time. So, at the begining of 2008, I started keeping a list, and at the end of the year my grand total was (insert drumroll here): 130 books. I even impressed myself a little, surpassing my initial estimate of 100 books.

This part of my blog is still a work in progres. I mean, I'm getting a comfort level with the polish-related stuff, I'm doing better than I thought I would, but how much rambling about books will be tolerated in between? What kind of info should I include? What ... are other people posting on this subject?! And so it dawned on me: there are probably as many if not more book blogs as nail blogs. Why in the world hadn't it occured to me before to check them out?

So I did. And it was good. And you'll notice my "other blogs" little section is no longer so little. In fact, the book blogs may need their own little area like the nail blogs soon. On one of them (Bookish Ruth actually) I found a little quiz (I love online quizzes, so often they're just spot-on accurate), which I think summed it up nicely:

What Kind of Reader Are You?

Your Result: Dedicated Reader

You are always trying to find the time to get back to your book. You are convinced that the world would be a much better place if only everyone read more.

Anyway, my main distraction to date this year has been reading blogs, writing my own blog, and shopping for polish that I suddenly realize I must have after seeing swatches. But I have managed to get a few books in & here's what they were:

#1:

Fish Out of Water

Book 3 of Fred the Mermaid

MaryJanice Davidson

#2:

No Rest for the Witches

Anthology

#3:

Moving Targets & Other Tales of Valdemar

Anthology

Edited by Mercedes Lackey

#4:

1st to Die

Book 1 of the Women's Murder Club

James Patterson

#5:

2nd Chance

Book 2 of the Women's Murder Club

James Patterson & Andrew Gross

Next on my list is the rest of the Women's Murder Club series. I started these books because my friend quit smoking & started reading instead, so to support her I decided I would read what she was reading so we can talk about it.

I can't say I intend to post reviews of every book I read, kind of like you don't catch me swatching whole polish collections - there are other people who do it better in both cases. But you'll probably catch me waxing poetic on some of my favorites, as I do with my favorite manicures. I can admit that almost every post I've made has turned out longer than I thought it was going to be when I started.

So. Maybe new record for longest post, and maybe not even on anything you care about if you've come looking for some NOTD. But I've been reading even longer than I've been painting my nails. And! Since I usually get all my books from the library, it's a much cheaper simple little pleasure than my nails tend to be.

If you're still with me, please feel free to let me know what you think! (Or even just what's on your mind ^^ ) That always goes, but especially for this first book post. And, as always, thanks for reading.

Sunday, January 25, 2009

So, I didn't mention before that with the intention of having more consistent pics to post, I purchased a new lamp & a "daylight" bulb to go in it. Still not as good as the real thing but that's in pretty short supply in Minnesota in winter. And of course when the sun does come out, I'm stuck at work. Anyway, that's what the light source will be for manicure pics from here on out unless otherwise noted.

I've seen this polish on several blogs, but it was seeing it on Brooke (over at Getcha Nails Did) just a couple of days ago that decided me on using it today:

Nubar Peacock Feathers. Purples, blues & greens, it was really hard to try & capture this one accurately. It was almost pretty enough to get away without a Konad. But I really like Konad, so I decided to give in.

Konaded with China Glaze Romantique Admire & plate m2.Here's a shot from a weird angle that ended up showing the green:On to the haul. I've been buying a lot of nail polish lately, even by my own standards, but I've just had the urge to check out every Dollar Tree in the area. I mean, everything's $1, I'm not going broke on these kinds of shopping sprees. This is from yesterday's trip, all Maybelline:

Just one more Dollar Tree to hit, & then I hope I'll be able to control my habit for a while. Well, impulse buys I mean. I've still got a couple more online orders planned out that I just haven't placed yet. But that's all for stuff that I need. Honest.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

TA-DA!I finished organizing my stash on Wednesday, but I was trying to limit myself to 1 post per day because I was afraid I'd run out of interesting stuff to post about. I'm starting to worry less about that now, because I've got like 4 or 5 different half-finished drafts almost ready to go. So I thought I might as well post the grand unveiling.

On one hand I'm surprised, on the other not so much. I mean, I had a few hundred the last time I counted, and I've added an awful lot of polish just over the last month indulging myself & calling it late Christmas... I'm kind of in the habit of buying myself late Christmas gifts until around, oh May, then they change to early birthday presents until July, after which they are late birthday presents, until around October when they turn into early Christmas presents!

The niftiest part of this whole project is that, after putting everything in Excel, I was able to put almost my whole list on 1 sheet of paper. I took off a couple of brands I don't see my mom or myself running across on a regular basis (like unfortunately discontinued Urban Decay, which wasn't exactly stocked at Walgreens or even Sallys when they were making it), made it 6 columns across sorted by brand & then by color, and I have something totally easy to fold up and stick in mom's purse so she doesn't have to worry about purchasing me dupes - sometimes she comes home with a little list of what she almost bought me, and I'm sure anyone reading this can understand how harsh that is.

So, back to the stash, you'd think with all those boxes filled up my dresser-top would finally be clean & empty, right?

Wrong. Say hello to my unworns:The top box is my box full o' tricks I guess you could say - Konad, rhinestones, loose glitter, various top coats both clear & sparkly. The bottom box is the recently worn box, not yet sorted in with the rest of their own brand. The rest are the reason I need to start painting my nails more than once a week. I *cough*almost*cough* feel guilty buying polish when I have so much that's brand new. *cough*almost*cough*

OK, that finally posted, on to the mani. I've had a few people express surprise that I can wear polish for a whole week. Before my discovery of an actual working quick-dry top coat, this was mainly a time issue. But another part was that a lot of time I don't really need a new paint job.

This pic, taken this morning of my manicure applied last Sunday, is why I can get away with just painting my nails on the weekend:Aside from some tip wear, which is much less noticeable at normal real life distances, my left hand is still looking lovely. BUT ...

On the other hand (literally lol) this is why I need to start doing my nails more often:My right hand is my dominant hand, and it's also the hand I have more trouble with peeling. By Thursday or Friday, sometimes this hand is looking even worse than pictured above.

This mani actually has one more day, since although my friend gets a kick out of checking out my nails, I don't think she'll care if I have a few chips while we sit around & play drunken Scrabble. But I'll do something new & shiny on tomorrow on Sunday.

Well, that's all for now. After I find a bite of lunch I've got a trip to the library ... which happens to be just a couple blocks from a Dollar Tree I haven't raided yet. So hopefully I'll have some new polish to post tomorrow in addition to a fresh mani. Thanks for reading.

Friday, January 23, 2009

The pills I'm talking about are biotin capsules. I've read a lot of good things about it, and I have pretty bad peeling on about half of my nails, so I thought I'd give it a try. My grandma placed an order for me when she placed her own for other supplements & it was buy 2 get 3 free, so I now have almost a year's supply.

I go see my grandparents every Friday after work for dinner, and on the way I stopped at a Dollar Tree nearby their house that just happened to have a Sally's right next door, and ... well ...

I struck Maybelline Express Finish gold at the Dollar Tree. Left to right: Purple Party, Sunlit Coral, Red Comet, Berry Fast, Turquoise Seas, Key Largo Lime. Bottom row is from Sally's, Savvy Golden Mauve, Raspberry & Sparkling Lavender, Finger Paints Spark My Interest, China Glaze Admire, and 2 Seche Vites. And there's my cat (again hanging out in just about the middle of everything), her name is Frisky (give me a break, I was 10 when I named her).

I'm sure you can understand how all that just kind of happened. I wanted to get my friend & my mom bottles of Seche Vite, which in Sally's January flyer is buy 2 Seche get a China Glaze free ... and then there were all these clearance polishes ... which I love clearance although I hate clearance stickers. I've got an awful lot of bottles with ugly orange stickers because they don't come off easily & I'm too lazy to peel & pick.

The Savvy Polish were actually the nicest surprises. Not much from a distance, but when I picked up the bottles I got a different appreciation. The Golden Mauve has a heavy gold shimmer:

The Raspberry also has a lot of gold shimmer:

And the Sparkling Lilac is actually almost duo-colored, pinkish lavender at some angles, bluer lavender at others, with a fine holographic glitter in there too:

So, a good way to kick off the weekend, all things considered. And then tomorrow I have a date! Well ... I'm getting together with my other single friend & some blackberry brandy & a Scrabble board & we decided since we're doing dinner we could call it a date lol. But it's more eventful than my weekends normally are.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

So, this blog is not only about nail polish. There are other simple little pleasures that I like to indulge in. Normally, chocolate does not make the list. I mean, a Hershey bar is not a temptation to me. An individual triple chocolate mouse with Devil's Food cake base now... even I can go for that:Yum, right? It was delicous.

Another simple little pleasure that I am lucky enough to have is a mother's love. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned it before, but let me spell it out: I love my mom. She is the coolest old lady I know. She will be 59 next month, and she watches South Park, she thinks Eminem is "a very creative young man," AND, most relevant at the moment, she caters to my little-bitty nail polish habit. I had a hellish day at work today, but my mood was instantly lifted when I came home to discover these little gifts waiting:Jean-Michelle (which I had never heard of before today) Cassis on the left & on the right Wet 'n' Wild #409C (what is up with not having names on these by the way? Some have one by the bar code but some just have this dumb number-sticker on the top). The color is pretty accurate on the Cassis, but the 409C is more lavender & has a pink shimmer .

Anyway, that's my recipe for turning a rough day into a pleasant evening. Thanks for reading.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

So I'm over half done. You can see some boxes ended up holding more than others, depending on bottle size. Sally Hanson fitting 6 wide compared to Revlon only 4. But I keep thinking of other things to add to my spreadsheet as I'm typing stuff in. And trying to track color quickly got complicated ... I mean, how much detail do I really want to go into? Do I need to distinguish between indigo & violet, or can I just call them all purple? So it's developing into kind of a mish-mash ... but still a more organised mish-mash than it was.

Today is the 20th, the day they start giving out free cosmetics! If you're interested, don't forget, because it's only while supplies last. Follow the link above for details.

On another (more serious) note, it is also Inauguration Day! Whatever your feelings on the soon-to-be President, you are living history. One day you'll look back & tell your kids or grandkids about this. I'm at the point where I kind of wish I had taken the day off from work so I could watch & now it's too late. But I'll probably sneak in a couple peeks online.

I really shouldn't be posting at all since I'm already at work, but I just couldn't resist a brief note on what's going on today, both the historic & the not so much. Thanks for reading.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

With Konad sometimes it's easy to get carried away. Especially after last week's manicure gave me a false sense of confidence regarding my double-stamping skills. I love my base color, I haven't worn red in a really long time, and I like the black over top, but I am disgusted & disappointed with the final design. Even if I'd managed to get everything even (which is tricky if not impossible since my nails are varying lengths) it ended up reminding me more of upholstery than anything.

Nubar Unfaithful Red from the Liquid Metals collection, Konaded with black special polish & plate m4. I even did a pretty good job of painting neatly & cleaning up everything with an orange stick.

Usually I do my nails once a week, but I don't know that I can stand this for that long. Right now my intention is to sleep on it, see if somehow I miraculously love them in the morning & if not redo everything after I go to lunch with my parents. Like I said, I love the red & the black so I may stick with the same colors and a more moderate hand with the stamper.

Anyway, the moral of the above story, as the title says: Sometimes less is more. On the other hand - sometimes more is just more & great. And while my day ended on a somewhat sour note with a manicure that did not live up to the image I had in mind, the rest of my day was a lovely polish-buying happyfest.

Here's my cat making room for herself in between my purchases & haul from the library. She's old (17) so she does whatever & goes wherever she pleases.

I stopped several places, a couple Sallys to pick up more of the Romantique collection, where I also ran across a few clearance items that needed to come home with me, and a few cheapos at Target that were lonely. Best bang for the buck was at Dollar Tree, though. Another thing to thank my fellow bloggers for, I had never been in a Dollar Tree but so many people said they had oldie-goodie polishes I put it on my to-do list & this is what I turned up at my first stop (there are 2 other stores I know of to raid at a later date):

Top row is some nail art rhinestones, and some Cover Girl. Nailslicks: Chocolate Mint, Galactic Green, Sunrise, & Midnight Metal. & Mattalic (which I think have to be about 10+ years old because I remember purchasing a couple when they first came out) Pink Zinc & Silver Violet. Bottom Row is Sally Hansen Super Shine Naturistics Aura Pearl, New York Color Cozy Cottage, and Loreal: Brave (Bijou Crystals), B. Strong (Bijou Gems), Shocking (Crystals), Hopeful (Bijou Facets), B. Rebllious (Crystals), B. Adventurous (Crystals), Sweet (Facets), B. Impulsive (Crystals), & another B. Hopeful. Almost none of the 3-packs had the same set of colors, so I counted myself lucky to only end up with 1 duplicate. I have no idea when this line originally came out, how old they are, but you can see a couple of them are pretty separated.

So, with all the shopping I did not get around to doing anything with my existing stash except add to it. I think that's like a step past procrastination, not just putting off the task but making it a larger task at the same time! Oh well, the perils of being a nail polish addict I suppose. It's hard to go anywhere that has polish without looking, and finding at least 1 thing to pick up.

Friday, January 16, 2009

I think, as little girls, when we get interested in nail polish for the first time & get a bottle or 2, it's pretty normal to keep that nail polish on top of your dresser. Well, I'm sad to say, that's still where my polish resides, even though it's pretty much outgrown the available space. It gets dusty, it's hard to see stuff ... you get the idea.

This is my stash all laid out the last time I tried put order to my dresser-top.

And my Nubar haul (just came Tuesday & also unworn). The big set is Liquid Metals, the smaller set is Sweet Nothings.

Inside one of the little boxes was the free gift of a base coat & a top coat, inside the other box were these 6 lovlies, most of which I had to have after seeing them swatched on various blogs. From left to right: Gold Feather, Gold Leaf, Peacock Feathers, Purple Beach, Indigo Illusion (which I'm actually looking forward to the most of all of them, but I'd like my nails a little longer when I wear it - it's so pretty it deserves better than what I currently have to offer), and Reef Green .

Sooooo... I kind of need to get my crap together. Thankfully, I have recently purchased some clear shoeboxes - thanks to seeing pics on other blogs of how well they worked - and so I am ready to start solving my problem.

Unfortunately, I am a little too much of a nerd to just pack them in there & be done with it. I've had it in my head for a while now that it would be really nice to have a list of what polishes I have. Which has since evolved into a spreadsheet so that I could sort it by brand or color or finish or ... ahem. Well, you get the idea. Anyway, I'd like to make time this weekend to get them on the spreadsheet & pack them up. If I get my whole dresser cleared off, I can make that the spot for my unworn polish & also my Konad & other stuff I use more often.

So, I've got a plan, and plans are good ... implementation now, sometimes that's a problem. Well, we'll just see how much progress I manage. As always, thanks for reading.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

So, I've been such a good influence on my mom lately that the past few weeks she has started painting her nails. I think it's just great & she commented that even my dad noticed & asked if she was going to do it again when she took off the polish. She painted them again, but got a ding in one of her nails & was telling me how much she liked her manicure except for that, so I asked her if she wanted me to cover it up with a Konad flower. I wasn't surprised when she said no at first (she has her own notions of what she's "too old for" sometimes), but I managed to convince her pretty quickly to give it a try - one nail I said, probably no one but you will even know it's there. Well, she was so thrilled with the flower that she decided she wanted her other thumb stamped also.

Now, one of the reasons I think my mom is cool is that she remembers what I like & what I'm currently into, and she keeps an eye out for me. I hadn't heard anything about this before she gave me the newspaper clipping & a printout of the website into - apparently there was some kind of class action lawsuit against cosmetic companies & now they're getting ready to give away free beauty products starting January 20th. Full info can be found at http://www.cosmeticssettlement.com/ where there is an explanation of who is eligible (just about any US resident from the vague wording), which retailers will be participating, and what free stuff is being given out. Unfortunately, I don't see any nail polish on the list, but there's a lot of other really nice stuff from good brands. Definitely worth looking at.

I'm tempted to make this post quite a bit longer ... I've got so many ideas of stuff I want to put on here, but I'm trying to pace myself. Posting 5 things in one day & then not having anything to post for a week wouldn't be too cool. But! Upcoming stuff I want to blog on:

My Nubar order - my first Nubar order came & it's so so prettyMy Stash - It's a mess right now, and I'm in the process of organizing it.Books - my next-favortie simple pleasureMore manis - I now know the power of Seche Vite. I have no excuse for only doing my nails once a week.Konad - late Christmas present to myself is going to be a Konad haul

I guess that's enough for now lol, although I could definitely keep going. This turned into a little longer than intended post after all. Thanks for reading.